Classes started this morning so I bought my books on Saturday. It's generally pretty painless since my scholarship covers up to $500 of books and supplies from the university bookstore. There have been semesters when the total for books alone exceeded that, and even when I personally don't have to pay for it, I resent that they charge eighty bucks for a used paperback. Our state legislature attempted to tackle the costs of textbooks, in part by requiring that profs sign an acknowledgment of the cost to students before they assign a text and requiring disclosure of any benefits they may receive. Pretty much every student I've talked to gets annoyed by the practice of continually coming out with new editions so students can't sell their books back and the next class has to buy brand new books. In some fields, it makes perfect sense; a class on molecular cell biology should incorporate the latest discoveries. In others, it only serves to line the publishers' pockets; Calculus I is Calculus I is Calculus I and a Dover paperback of a fifty year old text might serve just as well for a tenth of the cost.
This year there was a new wrinkle. Only two of my classes had books at the bookstore, but a third requires a subscription to online content instead. I can't use the book voucher system for the website so I have to pay for it myself then requisition a reimbursement.I know that I'm very lucky I don't have to pay and shouldn't grumble about the hassle of submitting the paperwork. So $230 for two books and $60 for the online thing could be worse, but it is still a lot of money for the folks who have to come up with the cash themselves.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
My truly terrible extravagance
Ok, it was time to sit down and review my latest financial information. I didn't track my spending, but thanks to mostly using my debit and credit cards and having some awareness of how much cash I spent I can at least reconstruct the total spent and major causes of spending for the ten weeks I spent at the REU. Keep in mind that during this time, the costs of the bare necessities of my life were born by others. I lived in a dorm provided by the program, had a meal plan that covered a meal a day in the cafeteria, and had parents who fed me whenever I was home. All car related costs were (and are) covered by my parents. (Yes, I do feel guilty about this, but I've yet to talk them out of it. Whenever my mother notices a dramatic drop in my gasoline spending on the gas station card they provided for this purpose, she asks me whether I've been using my own money instead and tells me not to do that.)
This summer I made a conscious choice to be a bit more extravagant, to play a bit more and save a bit less. In part, I thought that since I had already exceeded my savings goal for my time in college it wouldn't hurt my progress toward my goals. There were also other more personal reasons why I felt like I deserved/needed to get out some and socialize even if it did mean buying dinner when I could have eaten cafeteria food for free.
Within a margin of error of $10, my spending for those ten weeks was $581.66. That's over 13% of the stipend I received this summer. Major expenditures included a new hat and a weekend in Dallas. We went to visit some divisions of TI and a couple of tech start-ups, and the trip also served as my vacation for the summer. The program paid for transportation, hotels, and a couple of meals. We kept going to moderately priced, sit down restaurants, and eating there several times adds up quickly. Also, I bought a ticket to Six Flags so I could spend a day there rather than sitting around the hotel. If you add all of this to the costs of lunches, dinners, and movies with friends, the total is staggering.
I can almost convince myself it isn't as bad as it looks. $153.29 of that bought me another year of prepaid cell phone service. However, even if I exclude that and the co-pays for prescriptions when I got sick, I still averaged around $40 a week. That feels like a huge amount of money at this point in my life. Starting September 1st, I'll start tracking every penny I spend to try to get a better handle on things. I am generally somewhat frugal by nature so I suspect this summer was an aberration, but I need to make sure it isn't the beginning of a trend.
This summer I made a conscious choice to be a bit more extravagant, to play a bit more and save a bit less. In part, I thought that since I had already exceeded my savings goal for my time in college it wouldn't hurt my progress toward my goals. There were also other more personal reasons why I felt like I deserved/needed to get out some and socialize even if it did mean buying dinner when I could have eaten cafeteria food for free.
Within a margin of error of $10, my spending for those ten weeks was $581.66. That's over 13% of the stipend I received this summer. Major expenditures included a new hat and a weekend in Dallas. We went to visit some divisions of TI and a couple of tech start-ups, and the trip also served as my vacation for the summer. The program paid for transportation, hotels, and a couple of meals. We kept going to moderately priced, sit down restaurants, and eating there several times adds up quickly. Also, I bought a ticket to Six Flags so I could spend a day there rather than sitting around the hotel. If you add all of this to the costs of lunches, dinners, and movies with friends, the total is staggering.
I can almost convince myself it isn't as bad as it looks. $153.29 of that bought me another year of prepaid cell phone service. However, even if I exclude that and the co-pays for prescriptions when I got sick, I still averaged around $40 a week. That feels like a huge amount of money at this point in my life. Starting September 1st, I'll start tracking every penny I spend to try to get a better handle on things. I am generally somewhat frugal by nature so I suspect this summer was an aberration, but I need to make sure it isn't the beginning of a trend.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Give a student a slice of pizza...
Give a student a slice of pizza, you feed her for a day. Give a student two whole pizzas left over from a departmental picnic, and she gets to avoid grocery shopping for the next week. Although, if she's anything like me, she'll then waste $1.39 on getting ice cream with friends afterward anyway.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Eagerly awaiting bills
This may be the one time in my life I really want to get bills. It is difficult to prepare a budget without an accurate estimate of what water and electricity will cost. I'm really eager to jump right in to my spreadsheet program and get going on PearBudget. Without a plan in place and a commitment to track my expenses, my spending may get out of hand. I know this summer I spent quite a bit more than I intended to.
I unexpectedly got a summer internship doing an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates funded by the NSF) which allowed me to get paid to do work I planned on doing for my honors thesis anyway. It was great experience, and my savings got a nice boost as a result. However, between the unexpected income and the interest from a c.d. that matured this summer I felt fairly rich. I splurged on lots of dinners out with friends, movies, nothing that in and of itself cost enough to make much of a dent in my bank balance, but looking back it did add up. To be perfectly candid, I think if I had it to do over again I probably would, but it isn't a life style I could comfortably sustain throughout the year. If I can determine that I have X dollars to play with each month without dipping into the principal of my savings, then I'll both feel less guilty about spending on frivolous things and be more responsible.
I unexpectedly got a summer internship doing an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates funded by the NSF) which allowed me to get paid to do work I planned on doing for my honors thesis anyway. It was great experience, and my savings got a nice boost as a result. However, between the unexpected income and the interest from a c.d. that matured this summer I felt fairly rich. I splurged on lots of dinners out with friends, movies, nothing that in and of itself cost enough to make much of a dent in my bank balance, but looking back it did add up. To be perfectly candid, I think if I had it to do over again I probably would, but it isn't a life style I could comfortably sustain throughout the year. If I can determine that I have X dollars to play with each month without dipping into the principal of my savings, then I'll both feel less guilty about spending on frivolous things and be more responsible.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Who am I?
I am entering my senior year of college. I'm majoring in physics with a concentration in biophysics and a minor in math. Mostly, I really enjoy school, and I'm somewhat nervous about having to finish and begin adult life. I think I want to teach for a few years before graduate school in the sciences.
I recently moved into an apartment of my own after living at home or in dorms for all of my life to date. Now I'm responsible for paying bills, buying groceries, and budgeting. Perhaps having this blog will help me stay focused.
I recently moved into an apartment of my own after living at home or in dorms for all of my life to date. Now I'm responsible for paying bills, buying groceries, and budgeting. Perhaps having this blog will help me stay focused.
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